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NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb (pics pg 3)

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 9:47 am
by Despot
So ... eh ... where to begin.

Barcelona! That's where!

I was there with work this week and I'm reminded why I love that city. Last night, after Spanish Serving Measure of Rum no. 4 (which equates to about double the measure you would receive in Ireland) I spotted a straight '71 Princeton Reverb for sale in Dublin for a really good price. A few drink fuelled messages later and a deal was struck.

I'm going to check it out tomorrow - but from the photos I've seen it all looks straight, albeit I'll need a step down transformer to run it here in Ireland as it's a US model. Not an issue - I have one.

So hopefully I'll have more to report tomorrow after I've tried it. I'll then be in the weird position of having both a Princeton non-reverb as well as a Princeton Reverb. I guess I'm going to need a splitter box then...

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 1:13 pm
by Fenderguy
You lucky bastard :D

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:24 pm
by StevenO
Oh boy, if you thought the Princeton NR was good... :whistle:

My all time favourite amp. I don't always use it, but I usually do and that means a lot. It'll sound fantastic alongside your Princeton NR.

Enjoy!

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:41 pm
by wproffitt
Congrats! I love my SFPR and I think you will love yours, too. There are other amps that sound great to me some or most of the time, but my PR makes me smile EVERY time I play through it.

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 8:04 pm
by Ursa Minor
YES YES YES YES !!!

My '72 PR is one of the all around nicest sounding amps I've ever heard. I couldn't be more excited for you!

And yes, run those Princetons together. Both Steven and I are both guilty of running a PR + 6G2 now and again... :whistle: :? :ph34r:

A little disappointed in the story though...I thought you were going to have some crazy drunken story about finding a PR in Barcelona, having to go to several locations, meeting a guy who knows a guy, who also knows a guy... all of the sudden you're on a house boat in Amsterdam playing poker with world mafia leaders as you sweeten the pot with a few 60s Gibson. Someone gets offended, a fight ensues, the boat catches fire and now you're in a rave near the red light district. You finish dancing up the night when its 5am and you realize you lost the lead on the amp, when a beautiful Romanian girl whispers in your ear with a sultry accent - "follow me, I have the Princeton."

...you get the idea. ;)

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 12:16 am
by Despot
Thanks guys.

Nick - I like your story ... but my life isn't that interesting. That being said, my last girlfriend was Romanian, so maybe it's more interesting than I think! :)

It'll be next week before I have the amp in hand - but I will get to try it out today, so I'll take a few pics to tide us over until I have it.

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 3:55 am
by Ursa Minor
Despot wrote:Thanks guys.

Nick - I like your story ... but my life isn't that interesting. That being said, my last girlfriend was Romanian, so maybe it's more interesting than I think!

It'll be next week before I have the amp in hand - but I will get to try it out today, so I'll take a few pics to tide us over until I have it.
:D


:ph34r:

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 6:37 am
by Despot
So went to check this out today.

Very very clean amp - all original apart from the speaker baffle which has been replaced (though not the speaker cloth, which is original).

Wonderful full and lush sounding reverb ... and a fantastic sounding amp. Why did they stop making them like this!? I was so busy playing it that it didn't occur to me to take any photos. I'll be picking it up next week (pay day) - in the meantime I've put a deposit down on it.

So ... I guess I'll have a stereo Princeton set up now.

Edit - forgot to mention ... I'm pretty sure this has a 10 inch Oxford (Fender branded) fitted. The Oxfords have always seemed to have a bad rep ... but the amp sounded really really good. It sounded at least as good as my non-reverb with the Weber fitted - if not a little smoother (which I guess is normal from a well broken in speaker).

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 4:43 pm
by Ursa Minor
Despot wrote:So went to check this out today.

Very very clean amp - all original apart from the speaker baffle which has been replaced (though not the speaker cloth, which is original).

Wonderful full and lush sounding reverb ... and a fantastic sounding amp. Why did they stop making them like this!? I was so busy playing it that it didn't occur to me to take any photos. I'll be picking it up next week (pay day) - in the meantime I've put a deposit down on it.

So ... I guess I'll have a stereo Princeton set up now.

Edit - forgot to mention ... I'm pretty sure this has a 10 inch Oxford (Fender branded) fitted. The Oxfords have always seemed to have a bad rep ... but the amp sounded really really good. It sounded at least as good as my non-reverb with the Weber fitted - if not a little smoother (which I guess is normal from a well broken in speaker).
Sounds like a Princeton! :)

Do you know if it's the removable baffle or is it just the grill frame? My 72 has the particle board, built-in baffle and the separate, removeable grill frame. Nothing wrong with that just curious. Still sounds great either way.

Curious if it's the original speaker. Did you look to see if it's the Fender blue labeled type?

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 5:27 pm
by StevenO
Sounds like you've found yourself a good one. Good on ya! :)

Also, don't worry about what people say about Oxford, Utahs, or CTS speakers. A huge amount of records were made using these so-called undesirable speakers, and that's fine with me!

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 10:50 pm
by sookwinder
DO NOT REMOVE THE OXFORD 10" SPEAKER FROM THAT PR
DO NOT REMOVE THE OXFORD 10" SPEAKER FROM THAT PR
DO NOT REMOVE THE OXFORD 10" SPEAKER FROM THAT PR
DO NOT REMOVE THE OXFORD 10" SPEAKER FROM THAT PR
DO NOT REMOVE THE OXFORD 10" SPEAKER FROM THAT PR


Step slowly away from the PR and do not make sudden movements

Kevin, the Oxford 10" speaker is fucking awesome. Their 12" speaker may have not been their best , but for what ever reason the 10" just kills.
Brad told me this and when I got my BFPR it was oh so true.

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 11:25 pm
by Despot
Thanks David - I wasn't sure about where I'd read about Oxfords (probably here), but I've no intention of removing it ... it sounds bloody great!

In fact everything about this amp sounds great - I brought Sully (my JM) with me to try it out. The guy's eyes nearly went out on stalks when he saw the Jazzmaster so naturally I offered it up to him to try first. He hit a clean A chord - it just sounded fantastic, punchy, clear, open ... with a really great reverb sound. I played the amp a little bit after that (more to make sure it was okay than anything else), but I was sold on it with that first chord. Glorious sounding thing!

I went a bit mad last night buying NOS valves for it in anticipation of picking it up on Friday - found pairs of RCAs, Mazda and GE NOS 6V6GTs for decent prices. I'll be interested to hear what changes (if any) these make over the current valves (I think it has new JJs in it now), or the old Sylvanias that I've yet to try in an amp (when I put the Brimars in the other Princeton it sounded so good my testing stopped right there).

I think I'm going to end up running these in tandem - in my head it's sort of like having a 2 x10 amp, but better because you've slightly different voicings for each speaker. Now ... to find that old splitter box of mine before Friday... :)

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 11:27 pm
by Despot
kosmonautmayhem wrote: Curious if it's the original speaker. Did you look to see if it's the Fender blue labeled type?
It is indeed Nick - dark speaker basket with a silvery/light coloured cover over the magnet (bell?) with the blue label. Which I think is the Oxford speaker, right?

So so good sounding!

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 4:32 am
by maximee
Kevin, congrats on that lovely amp!
After I got Goldie and a SFPR, I'm all set. I think this is part of the reason I'm not posting much lately.
I too have a US version. Which transformer did you end up getting? I know there's the "beefier" one and the standard one.
I'd have to look up part numbers, but I can do that later.
Would be very interested in your conversion, so if you find time to document that, it'd be much appreciated.
But for know: enjoy that nice amp 8)

Re: Pending NAD - 1971 Princeton Reverb

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 4:44 am
by Despot
Hey there Florian,

Thanks man - to be honest I was really really happy with the NR Princeton, and had I been entirely sober I probably wouldn't have taken a punt on this. This amp has been for sale for a few weeks and as I'd already bought the PNR I wasn't thinking about it (especially as I'd put so much into the PNR).

Then the seller withdrew the amp from sale (spotted that the night before I flew to Spain). I was kicking myself for having missed it when he put it up for sale again a few days later - I now realise that I fell completely into his trap (force people to stop sitting on the fence by closing the ad and then relisting it!). Can't complain though - this will finally stop my Princeton lust.

Just to be clear - I have no plans to replace the mains transformer on the amp - I have an external step down transformer to convert to US voltage from Irish (I bought it back when I had the Gibson GA20). I mainly play at home these days, so it's no trouble to have to plug into an external transformer before using the amp. I did convert my old Vibrolux back when I got it - instead of messing with the mains transformer in the amp I simply fitted a step down transformer into the cab. While it meant that I never had to think about remembering to bring an external step down transformer, it did manage to make the amp a whole lot heavier! In the end I put castors on it to enable me to wheel it into gigs ... but it needed it as the damn thing was so heavy with the extra transformer.

While I love my Swart (and would never let it go), I am now also a firm convert to the old OSG standard of Good Sounding Jazzmaster + Good Sounding Princeton = Perfection.